We understand that there may be a few malingerers still digging their fallout bunkers in anticipation of the End Of The World which has been rescheduled for 2012. For that reason, here is a video snippet of astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson talking to attendees at the 2010 World Science Festival about where he stands on the issue and why we might want to stand in the same spot:
Neil Degrasse Tyson debunks 2012
Comments
(23 Responses)
I’m as sceptical as any about the 2012 theories, but can you debunk something that hasn’t happened yet?
2012 IS AN INSIDE JOB!!!!
I am definately going to pass this video around.
This guy is awesome. I just wish I’d heard of him when I did my astrophysicist degree – I’d never have got bored with it from listening to a guy like Tyson!
*ahem* astrophysics degree, I mean. I didn’t study astrophysicists…
The Maya had two calendars: a ritual calendar with 286 days and a 365 day harvest calendar. December 21 2012 just happens to be the common denominator
thanks a lot. really enjoyed hearing from someone who wasn’t pushing the idea of the world ending in 2012. think many people including myself often watch documentaries pushing conspiracy theories etc and never actually bother to investigate what other intellectuals have to say on the subject.
as for fallout shelters. i still would love to be able to aford one. something is going to go tits up sooner or later. i’ve now got a few decent vegetable patches at the bottom of my garden to get me by for the moment. all i need now is a shotgun to keep the roaming gangs of bandits away!
Such a captivating speaker!
yay! science!
I don’t think there exists a sight more marvelous to behold than that of someone who understands something fundamental about the world they live in. Sunsets and mountaintops pale in comparison to the beauty of knowledge.
I have just got a book on Mayan Prophecies at the moment by Daniel Pinchbeck. I have been a bit busy of late but mean to get back into it. As far as I understood the Mayan Calendar is far more advanced than that of our Gregarian Calendar. It goes in ages so they didn’t believe the earth started at whatever date this dude said. I don’t believe it is the end of the world.. what I believe is something (possibly aliens and yes you can laugh) are contacting people from around the world and making them look at the digital clock at 11:11 or sometimes 1:11, 2.22 etc. I personally got 11:11 and kept getting magnetically drawn into looking at the digital clock at this time. It is linked to 2012 21 Dec 11:11 where the age of Aquarius on the wheel changes to Golden age. What happens then? who knows.
Dr Tyson is amazing, I wish the entirety of this conversation was out there. Makes me wish Sagan was still alive.
@rogibson
Of cource you can. The statement “the world will end in 2012″ is a prediction. Predictions are based on premises and claims of evidence. Show the premises to be false or the evidence to be invalid, and you have (to use your word) debunked the prediction.
Tyson did exactly this. He deconstructed the prediction, taking each premise and claim of evidence and showed each to be false and invalid.
I think my life would have been so different had I met this bloke as a teenager. What a brilliant, engaging individual.
I would give just about anything if I could have had teachers like this when I was in school. Just imagine, he want to teach you to think! What a concept! Teachers like this need to be declared national treasures. Instead, we teach our kids to worship grown men who play games and pay them exorbitant amounts of money.
I have to say I’m not too familiar with this guy Neil Tyson. I only saw the first 6 minutes of this. I don’t know there is a lot of mystery that is 11:11 and I saw it so many times I thought I was going nuts as felt like Jim Carey out of the movie No.23 lol. I then got an email about conspiracies and number 11 sent to me at 11:11 then my (now ex) boyfriend broke both his legs and ended up in what I thought was Ward 12 Room 11 and even joked that it would be freaky if it was Ward 11. I then went the next day to see him and asked for Orthopeadics and the guy confirmed “Oh yeah Ward 11 down there two corridors on the left” confirming it was Ward 11 Room 11! I then decided I couldn\’t ignore it anymore as too many coincidences which is when I googled it on the net finding I wasn’t the only one
I think the way he teaches this though is interesting and as he says it encourages us to ‘think’. I think a lot of people fear … and fear is afterall in my opinion, an irrational emotion or feeling based on the presumption something bad will happen. Therefore not really logical really is it?
Rachael,
Do you actually read anything on this site?
What you are describing is utter nonsense and coincidence. How many people were in that hospital that WEREN’T in Ward 11, Room 11? I have a personal relationship with the time 10.33, (it was a joke between my ex-wife and I), my body clock is tuned to it and I quite often find myself looking at a clock when that is the time. OR, it’s just that I notice that time more because of it’s significance?
With regard to your opinion on fear. If I am looking at a bus that is just about to run over me, I will experience fear, this will release adrenaline, which will speed up my heart, heighten my reflexes and hopefully allow me to move quicker and get out of the way. Nothing irrational or illogical… it’s evolution, “flight or fright”.
Reachel please view this 9 minute video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98OTsYfTt-c
Johnny – funny that was my exes name lol. No not everything… in fact I’m new to it and was skimming over when I saw this vid. I saw it and personally I believe something will happen due ot the amount of coincidences that have occurred. Who invented those sites then saying that so many people had seen this time then if it’s all nonsense? I don’t know about your relationship with 10:33 I just found 11:11 it was on a far too frequent basis to be ignored. There are many other things and books on 11:11 so if it’s nonsense why so many people have written so many books and theories and threads about it? This guy on the video debunked the theory of hte end of the world and said more or less that he encouraged us to think. He didn’t say nothing would happen. Who knows, maybe nothing will hey.
It’s a hoax fair enough but as said earlier.. how can you debunk something that hasn’t happened yet? Supposedly there is a polar shift etc and then there are other theories by new age people that a new conscienceness is awakened. I would like to think in a way it’s nothing but as this guy says “it’s my duty to empower you to think…”. Maybe we are all built to believe there is something more than what there is which is just this earth? Maybe we aren’t all rested with the fact that there is nothing more than just us and hope for some sort of something to appear. Anyway I saw that time etc and still do and that is what lead me to the sites. I guess no ‘evidence’ is anywhere either way.
Hey 1984 thanks for that video. What was the significance of peace written in the clouds at the end lol.? Anyway I have taken into account probability for example I typed other time sequences into google to see the probability of what could come up. Nothing comes up for people connecting with other times on the digital clock. The probability of that particular time was high also the probablity of books / other media etc is quite high but yeah I guess with the six billion people in the world and the amount of dreams etc as it said then yeah that is way down low. I don’t dismiss coincidence either. One girl once said to me after some dream ‘there is no such thing as coincidence and I said why invent the word then? As for the lottery I choose scratchcards as the probability is much higher
The probability of people talking about 11:11 and 2012-21-12 isn’t low though. The probability of someone seeing 11:11 on the clock or whatever may be low though but it’s still related.
I’ve briefly come back to this cause it’s lead me to think of the probability of an actual catastrophic event happening on this day and the speculation, media etc that has lead much of the world to ‘believe’ something will happen. I have been out and had a life since my last posts lol just it got me thinking and really I don’t know believe its possible. I mean obviously our sunstar is gonna die one day but we still have another few million years to go. If you calculate all what could happen on that day and then say ok now I’m going to calculate what day the end of the world (if you believe in this) is going to happen then probability wise… well I just know I can take my degree next year and complete it .. thats all I have to say LOL! Peace out everyone.